Son of Chaim Yankel Friedman and Roza Mink. Tailor
by profession. Before the February Revolution participated in the
anarchist and labour movements in Chicago, USA. Member of the Union of
Russian Workers. After the February Revolution of 1917, returned to
Russia. Until the spring of 1919 he lived in Odessa, and was a member of
the “Odessa Federation of Anarchists”. In the spring and summer of 1919
he was in the Makhnovist movement; he took part in battles with the
White Guards. He belonged to the Confederation of Anarchist
Organizations of Ukraine “Nabat”.

In the autumn of 1919 he was arrested in Moscow on
suspicion of belonging to the Moscow organization of Anarchists of the
Underground. According to the memoirs of B. Yelensky: ”As a rigid
vegetarian, he demanded a diet in prison of vegetables and fruits. He
was clamorous in this demand, quite indifferent to the fact that he was
imprisoned in the dreaded All-Russian ‘Vecheka,’ a name that produced a
feeling of terror everywhere in those days. One day all of the
imprisoned anarchists were summoned from their cells and lined up in a
large hall. Before long the door opened and the terror of the
All-Russian Cheka, Dzerzhinski, with his entire coterie, entered.
Recklessly disregarding all risks, Semke went directly to this dreaded
figure and demanded that, as a vegetarian, he be fed a vegetarian diet.”[1]

In February 1921 he was present at the funeral of
P. A. Kropotkin. By the end of February 1921 he was in Odessa. In
mid-1923 he left Russia; B. V. Yelensky met him in June 1923 in
Constantinople. Later he emigrated to Paris, where he belonged to the
Group of Jewish Anarchists. In the 1930’s he took part in the work of
the Relief Fund of the International Workers’ Association for imprisoned
and exiled anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists in Russia.

His address before the war was: 33 Avenue Jean Jaurés, Pré-Saint-Gervais, Paris, France.[2]

In 1942 he was arrested in Paris by the Nazis. On
August 24 he was deported on Transport No. 23 from the Drancy transit
camp to Auschwitz.

From the train carrying Friedman and his wife Dora
to the concentration camp, he threw a note which contained, in the
words of B. Yelensky, a request to whoever found it “that the letter be
forwarded to our address. It eventually reached us and the contents were
brief and heart-rending: ‘We are being led away; we do not know where.
Take care of our child.’ That was the last we heard of Semke and Dora.”[3]

After the end of the Second World War, the
Alexander Berkman Aid Fund and other anarchist organisations rendered
assistance to Michelle Friedman, daughter of the murdered anarchists.

Wife: Deborah Khenikh Friedman (born Yankel’, 22
June 1899, Berdichev, Berdichev uyezd, Kievskaya gubernia; died
September 1943, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland). In 1919-1923 she was a
member of the Confederation of Anarchist Organizations of Ukraine
“Nabat”. After 1923 she was in emigration. She was a member of the Group
of Jewish Anarchists in Paris. On 24 August 1942 she was deported by
Transport No. 23 from the Drancy transit camp to Auschwitz. She was
murdered in Auschwitz in September 1943.

It is a long time since we have had employment. I
shall probably have to leave in the near future. Dora and Michelle will
remain without any means of subsistence, because their means of
livelihood became exhausted some time ago. Michelle is four years old,
and very delicate; attached to her mother. Hence it is impossible at
this time to place her anywhere else, so that Dora should be able to go
to work; the child must stay with her. And it is not yet certain whether
they will be allowed to remain in Paris. It is precisely on this
account that I want to write to you and to make a request. I have never
turned to the movement for any help for myself – for others, yes; and I
realize fully your economic situation.

Nevertheless, I beg you, if you can do anything
for the family, don’t let Dora and the child become destitute. Do
everything possible… to help Dora and the child in such an emergency.
You surely understand that without me Dora is helpless; but let us hope
that everything will turn out for the best in the end. If you are able
to send anything, it is best to handle it through the bank or through
the American Express, in Dora’s name. On the papers her name appears not
as Dora, but as Deborah. If she is not in Paris it will be forwarded to
her. This letter is being written by me, not in the name of the
movement, but in my own name. The other comrades will probably write
their own account.

But you surely understand that it is most urgent
to give help to a mother and her child. I hope you will comply with my
request. Write, dear friends, all about yourselves and the relatives.
Keep in good health, dear and beloved friends Boris and Bessie and the rest.

Sam Friedman

Source: B. Yelensky, In the Struggle for Equality: The Story of the Anarchist Red Cross. Chicago; Alexander Berkman Aid Fund, 1958, pp. 69–70.